


Fainted Heart

by the_authors_exploits



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: ??? maybe, Angst, Fluff, Gen, M/M, im sorry this is crap, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 02:36:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3961225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_authors_exploits/pseuds/the_authors_exploits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natsu enjoys a warm summer day, but Gray is having problems</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fainted Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Im so sorry this took so long!!

If Natsu could have one thing for the rest of his life, it would be the blessed heat of this particularly warm summer day. The sun was shining, bright and angry, and Natsu was in love. He basked in it, arms thrown far out, soaking up the warm sunrays.

“Ahhh, this is the life!”

Behind him, the grumblings of his guild could clearly be heard through the open doorway; unlike Natsu, no one else was truly appreciating the warmth.

“Shut the damn door, flame for brains.”

“Haaa?” Natsu turned a glare on his frienemy. “Make me, Gray.”

But the ice mage didn’t look like he would be leaving his table anytime soon; the boy was sitting, topless, at a table besides Erza and Lucy where the trio tried to cool off as much as possible. Erza was calmly getting drunk on cold beer and other alcohol, Lucy was tossing ice cubes down her shirt front, but Gray was barely moving. His hand was wrapped tightly around a sweating glass of sweet tea, his head resting against the warm wooden tabletop, completely motionless.

Natsu turned back to soak up the sun; ahh, this was the life! The grumbling was still going on behind him, but he could care less.

Eventually, Gray stood from the table—albeit sluggishly. “I’m gonna head home…”

Natsu frowned. “Don’t lock me out.” They’d only recently moved in together, for convenience purposes as neither could afford an apartment by themselves, but the landlord had yet to get a second key made.

Gray, however, seemed content to ignore Natsu’s plight of being left outside for the night. “Don’t want to get locked out then you’d better come home now.”

“What, and miss this wonderful heat?”

“Yes, and escape from this hell into blessed cold.”

Natsu rolled his eyes; he was too content to fight with Gray today. And it wouldn’t be a fair fight, what with Gray looking pretty beat, and Natsu definitely didn’t want to seriously hurt Gray; sure, they got beat up pretty bad in their fights but that was when they were in top shape, on equal levels, and only having fun; so, if Natsu wanted to be technical, those bruises weren’t real injuries. They didn’t even sting, and if they did, he and the ice mage would fetch painkillers or ointment or the like for each other.

Those bruises from the friendly fights meant nothing; so Natsu watched Gray slowly plod down the road towards their apartment, not once raising a hand towards his frienemy. When Gray turned a corner and Natsu couldn’t seem him anymore, he returned to basking in the warm rays.

And there Natsu stayed until the sun was beginning to set; with a satisfied sigh, he left the grumblings of his guild behind to go home. Happy would be staying at Lucy’s place for the night on the excuse that Natsu wouldn’t keep his room cool enough during the night.

The first thing Natsu realized when he arrived to his shared apartment was that the door wasn’t even shut properly; his second observation was that it wasn’t locked. His first thought? They were being robbed—not that they had anything of value to be taken—and his second thought was that Gray must be hurt. Gray wasn’t one to just let a stranger enter their dwelling uninvited and let them leave in peace; he also wasn’t one to not lock the door behind him, even with Natsu kindly asking earlier that day to not lock him out. All in all, something was incredibly fishy.

So Natsu let the door creak open and entered cautiously; the first room that the front door opened up into was the living room. Nothing seemed bothered or missing, and the kitchen off to the left of the living room was similarly untouched. So Natsu crept down the hallway towards the bedrooms and bathroom; not even two steps in and Natsu saw him.

Gray was collapsed on the ground, unmoving, a solitary strip of moonlight coming in from his open bedroom window.

“Gray!”

Natsu ran forward, dropped to his knees besides his companion, and ran his hands over the other’s body for injuries. When he found none, the heat registered. Gray was too warm; normally, he was always warm and thus he stripped to be cool and comfortable. He had trained in the cold and was acclimated to a cooler environment than what he chose to live in; and heat did not bode well for the ice mage. Especially so now it would seem.

“Gray, ohmygod!” Natsu figured there had been no break in, that Gray had been so desperate to cool off he had left the door open and unlocked. How could he have been so stupid as to let Gray go home alone? Who knows how long he had been lying on the floor, sweltering and sweating! Natsu had to cool him down, and fast! From the looks of Gray’s body, he had been trying to go towards the bathroom. For whatever reason. “Hang on, Gray…” He muttered.

The flame mage hooked his hands beneath Gray’s arms and hoisted the other boy up, into his arms and against his chest. With the body of his roommate effectively supported in his arms, Natsu slowly made his way towards the bathroom; Gray might’ve been trying to take a cold bath. He always took cold baths when it was shower day and Natsu figured if he liked them so much it might help him cool down.

The bathroom was small and movement was minimal, however, Natsu somehow maneuvered his friend into the tub; he gently eased the limp form down into the basin, having the courtesy to lay a hand towel behind his head for comfort. He plugged the drain and turned the faucet on, completely cold water pouring form it.

“Don’t you give up on me, Gray!”

The ice mage was still in his pants, still shirtless, having discarded and left his shirt at the guild earlier, but Natsu figured he wouldn’t care if his clothes got a little wet; and if he did, Natsu would call him and idiot and maybe punch him a few times for scaring him so much (of course, once Gray was feeling better).

The cold bath isn’t doing anything, though Gray is slowly losing that angry red look to his skin. However, it’s not enough for Natsu to calm down and he remembers the bags of ice in the freezer that were left over from their house-welcoming party. He stands, glances at Gray.

“I’ll be right back; don’t drown, ice brains.” And with that he’s out the door, in the kitchen, and dragging two and a half bags into the bathroom. Without much ceremony, Natsu ripped the bags open and dumped them into the tub alongside Gray; they melted nearly immediately and Natsu opened the drain when he realized the water was already warm, too warm for Gray. He repeated this process—fill tub with cold water, dump ice, empty, repeat—until the end of the third bag of ice; Gray looked better, and his breathing was more even, but he still hadn’t woken up and it had nearly been ten whole minutes! Natsu was freaking out. He needed more ice because obviously the cold bath wasn’t doing it; they had no more ice, however, so Natsu would have to go out and get some. He stood once more.

“Gray, I need you to be okay while I go out for more ice; just…just don’t drown, yeah?” A splitvsecond decision that he’d blame on nerves had him hugging his unconscious friend tight before leaving the drain open and the water running to rush out of the apartment and to the nearest corner store. Eight minutes later and he was returning with four more bags of ice that he very quickly dumped in the tub; fifteen more minutes of Natsu sitting in worry as he watched the ice melt and Gray finally returned to the land of the living.

A groan was all that came out, and some subtle shifting under the water and ice, and Natsu was instantly cupping his companion’s face.

“Gray? Gray, are you awake? Come on, wake up, talk to me; you’re such an idiot, please wake up.”

“’M up…” A deep breath and Gray’s eyes slitted open. “’M up…”

And Natsu sighed the biggest sigh he thought he’d ever have; he felt all the tension give away and he slumped against the side of the bath. “For gods’ sake, next time it’s too warm outside just turn on the damn airconditioning!”

Gray frowned and shifted; he seemed to finally realize where he was. “Oh; did I collapse? Yeah, that happens sometimes.” He shifted again. “Normally I take a cold bath before I collapse; guess I was a little late today…”

Natsu glared. “Yeah, well, next time tell me; I’ll help, go get you ice or something. And turn on the airconditioning, geez!”

“You hate the airconditioning.”

“Shut up,” Natsu turned to drain the tub. “This isn’t about me.”

He let Gray dry and dress in his night clothes without supervision but refused to leave his bedside when Gray finally crawled into bed that night.

“What if you fall unconscious like that again? Someone has to keep an eye out.”

“Seriously, Natsu, go to bed!”

But Natsu didn’t budge from the stool he’d dragged in; Gray groaned and slammed his head against his pillow.

“If you must watch me sleep then at least don’t stare at me all the time; it’s creepy!”

“I’ll do what I want.”

“Go to bed, idiot!”

“Make me.”

So Gray did; he grabbed Natsu’s wrist and tugged so they were both lying on Gray’s bed. With teeth clenched and a mellow glare on his face, Gray growled “Go to sleep” and rolled over, back facing a semi-stunned Natsu.

That was the first and unfortunately not the last time Natsu found Gray collapsed due to heat; that was also the first and certainly not the last time they shared a bed, mostly because they found they slept better when the other was nearby.


End file.
